Feb 8: Let Us Make Humankind in Our Image, According to Our Likeness

William Blake: Elohim Creating Adam
The Tate Gallery, London, 1795-1805

Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Gn 1:20–2:4a

Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them (NRSV, Gen 1:26-27).

Father, you created me in the darkness of my mother’s womb in your one unchanging act that is your being, act at once creative, life-giving and salvific. Your Word challenged me to accept the gift of becoming a human being, that is, a being already sharing in your divine life. Human life, generated by wife and husband, soon to be earthly mother and father; human life, physically developed enough to support consciousness; human life, still, of course, without language or logic; this human life, in the power of your Holy Spirit, said “yes” to that challenge of accepting your own divine life, Lord, and of thus becoming a human being. I had begun my pilgrimage, Lord, from nothing to everlasting growth in divine life ever to be offered to me at every moment.

Your priest, Lord, held me naked in his arms and, slowly immersing me in the water of the font three times, he said the words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Down into the water I went, Father, only days into my physical life, to die with your only begotten Son, Jesus, and to rise with him to new life. Your priest, Father, then anointed me with sacred chrism as Jesus had been anointed by the Spirit at his baptism by John. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” the priest prayed

By the same unchanging act that is your being, Lord, act at once creative, life-giving and salvific, by this same act that invited me still in the womb to share your life; I was now baptized into your life and your Church, under the visible sign of water, and anointed with sacred chrism.

From the first moment of my existence as a human being in my mother’s womb, I was invested in the priesthood, the kingship and the prophetic dignity that are those of your Son, Jesus, the Word made flesh. Now, by your same one, creative, life-giving and salvific act, all was signed and made visible for the world to witness.

Father, as I continue on my pilgrimage toward you, ever challenged by your Word, and empowered by your Spirit, may I always be faithful to my calling as a human being: priest, king and prophet with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.